


Study Less Daydream More

by CaptainErica



Series: Studying Defeats You Eventually [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, blaise zabini should be everyone's favorite, bored of care of magical creatures already, talking planners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 08:29:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17804591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainErica/pseuds/CaptainErica
Summary: Hermione thinks maybe she's all caught up with Care of Magical Creatures. That's why she can't focus on it.





	Study Less Daydream More

It was Monday, which meant Care of Magical Creatures study in the Library.

She had finished the homework already, and despite trying to remain focused, and despite her study planner reminding her breathlessly that it was already April so she should have recapped all of Care of Magical Creatures _twice_ by now; she just wasn’t interested. She wants to feel bad about that, but another part of her reminds her that she’s had plenty of practical practice and knows quite a lot: she can take a day off.

She scoffs at herself; what a very _Ron_ thing of her to think. He would be hugely pleased with himself if he ever found out she’d had that thought, so she can’t ever let him know. Harry would be pleased to note that she hates her planner’s tone of voice. That thought reminds her that she hasn’t written to Harry yet, so she now has something actually interesting to do with her time.

She’s a few paragraphs in when she hears a chair being pulled back from one of the tables behind her, and then someone sitting down. She ignores it, of course, ending the paragraph on NEWT-level homework being far less difficult than she had imagined it would be at this time of year. There’s another chair being pulled out as she starts writing about how Ginny and Neville have started a betting pool for when Blaise Zabini was going to admit that he was dating Pansy Parkinson. Everyone knew that they were, it was horribly obvious to all and sundry; they just weren’t saying anything. Why Neville was part of this pool Hermione had no idea, she writes, and then she’s distracted because the people behind her begin to talk, quiet, but still loud enough for her to hear snippets.

“Well, you know the rules.” Malfoy is saying when her attention is caught by them. It sounds rather flippant, like he’s just trying to get Blaise off his back about something (she knows that tone from before, Ron and Harry sick of her pestering).

“They’re practically made up,” Blaise counters, “and besides, they hardly matter any longer.” He says, and Malfoy sighs then quietly agrees with him.

It’s an odd conversation, but who knows what they had been talking about to prompt it. Hermione bites her lip and rereads what she had just written to try and get back into the letter and away from the conversation behind her. She shouldn’t be eavesdropping, really. It was quite rude of her.

She finishes off the letter after a while longer, taking her time on it, really being thoughtful about what she says. She folds it up and puts it in her planner ( _tomorrow you must complete-_ ), and packs up her books and things before standing and throwing it over her shoulder.

“Granger, here, settle something for us yeah?” Blaise says as she’s finished turning toward them to leave.

She blinks, “Ah, if I can.” She says, taking a few steps toward their table and stopping.

Blaise grins at her, then turns it on Malfoy who seems unimpressed with his exuberance. “See, we need to decide which course of action is best, and as someone who has taken a wide range of actions into consideration over your tenure here at Hogwarts, we believe you will best be able to provide assistance.”

Hermione pulls in a breath, already preparing to lecture them about the rules, and everything they should already know about how her previous experience with rule and law breaking had all been in the name of _good_ … But Malfoy scoffs and her thought process cuts out, short circuits as her father used to say.

Blaise rolls his eyes, “Anyway, do you think being straight forward and confronting the issue at hand, or person at hand, is best, or would a more tactful approach be best?” He asks, charming and smooth and Hermione’s brow furrows, because obviously she would choose the more straightforward one, especially as she has no idea what the issue in need of confrontation is.

“It’s more complex than that, Blaise.” He says, having clearly seen the look on her face. There’s some life in his grey eyes, voice a little less annoying since he’s clearly interested.

Blaise sighs and turns away from him fully, “If there was a set of rules, see… that you had drilled into your head, yeah?” He starts, and Hermione nods, frown a little more thoughtful now, “but you wanted something that went against at least some of them, _and_ that was technically not a bad thing…” He trails off here, clearly unable to explain this any better without giving her more information than they seem willing to.

“Well,” She says, “I imagine I would go with what I wanted, especially if these _rules_ you speak of are contrary to your wants and, as it might be, real life.” She frowns just a touch deeper for a second, “Though that doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with straight forward versus tactful.”

Malfoy, she almost doesn’t note, smiles just a little like he’s amused.

Blaise makes a little sound, then nods, “I think that thoroughly answers our question anyway, thanks Hermione.” He says with a bit of a wink, and she rolls her eyes.

“Yes, of course.” She says, shaking her head and turning away – she’ll go to the owlery now to send the letter off to Harry, get her mind off this strange encounter.

It wasn’t like she didn’t speak to Blaise from time to time, especially after classes, or when he waited outside prefect meetings for Pansy and Malfoy… Why did she still call him Malfoy?

No, that was not a thought for this evening. There were not enough hours in her study-packed days to wonder about why she couldn’t call Draco Malfoy by his first name even in her head. In fact, it was something she would never consider considering… She would, _obviously,_ probably later this evening, but not right now. She couldn’t, there was no reason for her to be thinking about Malfoy so much.

Well, except for that whole thing a few weeks previously, of course.

And the fact that he seemed to always be in the library when she was, and he had been commenting on things more often and…

_Later._

 


End file.
